Grown Apart
by gazing-at-blue-skies
Summary: A two part drabble on the Missus leaving Gene; one from each perspective.
1. Chapter 1

_Just a short drabble that I couldn't quite beat into submission as I tried to write more for the next couple of chapters for Under Pressure. _

_Gene/Missus (angst and reflection)_

_The day she left..._

* * *

_The day she left it had been raining, Gene had called to say that he would be home late and not to bother saving a plate of dinner for him, as he would get something to eat at Nelsons place. After she had hung up the phone she had sat at the kitchen table and cried her heart out. _

_When there were no more tears left to cry she had gone upstairs and packed her bags._

It had been a marriage of convenience really; she had discovered that she was pregnant with his child little over six months after they started courting. He had done the honourable thing and married her without any question as to whether it was really his child; she had never strayed though and she pleased that he trusted her enough to know that.

They had gotten married when she was barely even two months along in her pregnancy but she had sadly miscarried before she reached three months. She had honestly expected Gene to walk out the door at that point; but he stayed and was devastated by the fact that they had lost a child. He never admitted that fact to anyone outside the privacy of their own home; to him it was something that no-one else needed to know about.

She had heard him joking once in the pub with a couple of his friends about how it had been a 'close call' and that he was lucky that they didn't have a nipper running round and getting in the way of him having some fun with his missus.

That night she had listened to his muffled sobs as he sat downstairs listening to records, long after she had gone to bed.

There was no denying that she loved him; but she was really in love with the idea of being married, having a house and maybe one day having a family all of her own to care off. Her own childhood hadn't been that great; her father was a drunk and her mother seemed to care more about shagging the milkman than taking care of her own five children. He had become her knight in tarnished armour, threatening her father that if he ever laid another finger on her it would be his last moment on earth.

Gene, of course, loved to play the man of the house with his little wife whom he protected; he commanded respect at work, at home and quite often in the bedroom. Yet he also had a soft side to him that she knew he rarely revealed to others; it was the side of his personality that would randomly show up with a bunch of flowers silently apologising for all that he had done wrong, it was also the side that could be so very tender and loving when she needed it most and it was the side that she saw, when he had witnessed some of the horrors of his job and he came home... and clung to her like a lifeline.

There were of course more than two people in their marriage; she knew that was how it was going to be from the start. At their wedding reception he had gotten incredibly drunk, beaten up two of his best mates and then vomited in the corner of the pub before passing out. If it wasn't the alcohol that was the third wheel of their relationship it was definitely his job; sometimes she felt like she was the mistress and his career was his wife, whom he was cheating on every time he came home to her and lay in bed besides her... that is, if he did come home.

Oh she knew about the girls he slept with, she would have been a fool for denying it; all that mattered to her was that Gene came back home and slept in their bed at the end of it all.

If someone asked her when it was that she fell out of love with Gene, she would have to answer that it was probably just after Sam Tyler showed up; she never blamed him for the end of their marriage, gods no, it was already on the rocks by the time he came on scene; instead he had been the final straw that broke the camels back.

She had put up with Genes' late nights time and time again but Sam seemed to bring out another side in him; a new leash of life which final gave her the strength to realise she wasn't needed any more... that she hadn't really ever been needed by him in the first place. She stayed at his side for another five years going through the motions and playing her role, never once did the subject of children come up.

The day she left it had been raining, Gene had called to say that he would be home late and not to bother saving a plate of dinner for him, as he would get something to eat at Nelsons place. After she had hung up the phone she had sat at the kitchen table and cried her heart out.

When there were no more tears left to cry she had gone upstairs and packed her bags.

Writing him the letter had been the hardest part, there was so much that she wanted to say that would forever remain unsaid; she had poured out her heart and soul into that note but not that it mattered really because at the end of it all she knew it would end up crumbled up and dumped in the bin.

She even left him a list of things for keeping the house running.

As she closed the front door and posted the keys back through the letter box she took one last long look at the home she was walking away from. There would be no turning back, Gene would never forgive her and she could never forgive Gene for all the pain she had been made to go through; all the times she had thought him dead, all the drunken nights where he came home and passed out on the settee and all the mornings he had come in stinking of cheap perfume.

Walking away from the house she tilted her face up into the rain and let it wash over her; almost starting the slow process of cleaning her soul and mind.

To her it symbolised a fresh start.

That night when Gene came home he read the note over and over again; his brain seemed unable to process the words on the piece of paper held before him. His fingers traced over the curls of her letters before he screwed the note up and dumped it in the bin.


	2. Chapter 2

_Gene's perspective on the day his wife left as requested by Siggy and by Gally1 . _

_Gene/Missus (angst and reflection)_

_The day she left..._

_It isn't beta'd so please forgive the mistakes… they are all my own for I own nothing else! _

* * *

_The day she left it had been raining, Gene had called to say that he would be home late and not to bother saving a plate of dinner for him, as he would get something to eat at Nelsons pub. After he had hung up the phone, Gene had returned to celebrate with his team after their success at bringing down an infamous drug baron and his contacts. _

_When he had gotten home later that night he had found her gone and only a note to explain. _

When they had married, she became Patricia Nancy Hunt, but everyone knew her as Nancy; she never liked her first name as it was the same as her mothers, a stupid family tradition she had made clear to Gene that she had no intention of carrying on for their child. Nancy had always said that if she had a little girl, she would call her Deborah Jeannette and if it was a boy, he would be called William Gene; a tradition she wanted to enforce all of her own.

Of course Gene hadn't made any comment on the subject, but deep down inside his heart swelled with pride and adoration for this woman, who made him feel like nothing else mattered in the world.

It had never been a marriage of convenience for him, despite what everyone else thought or said behind his back. His missus was everything to him and it didn't bother him that much that they had only gotten engaged after five months of courting all because she was carrying his child; secretly he had admired her for much longer.

She was the eldest girl in a family of five; and Gene had first set eyes on her one Sunday afternoon in autumn, as he and a few of the lads from the police station were playing football. Nancy had been heading past the field with a couple of her friends after Sunday school; her long brown hair was tied back with a blue bow and she had the cutest smile… or so Gene thought. The girls had stopped to chat; it turned out that Nancy's older brother Richard was one of Gene's newest friends from work.

From that point on Gene had fallen for Nancy but never told a soul until two weeks before the summer fete, when he asked Nancy if she wanted to go with him. Luckily for him she had turned eighteen that spring, so was allowed to start courting according to her fathers rules; a man Gene had never liked.

She had immediately said yes and from then on the pair had become inseparable.

Gene couldn't deny that there were many other girls who liked him, he was quite a handsome twenty-one year old lad; and although Nancy wasn't the prettiest of all the girls (she was only five foot five inches, a little curvy and had deep brown eyes that he often heard her father refer to as 'cow eyes') to Gene she was perfect.

The day Nancy told him she was pregnant with his child, Gene had immediately gone to her father and asked for her hand in marriage. Nancy never knew of their full conversation, all Gene ever told her was that her father would never lay another finger on her so long as he lived; and as far as Gene was concerned, Nancy was well and truly rid of that family especially her parents.

Their marriage was meant to be a reasonably quiet affair; except Gene had gotten so incredibly drunk at the pub he had beaten up his best man Samuel and another friend Jonathan; all because of their remarks about the baby not really being his.

He never told Nancy the real reason he had punched the pair of them.

Gene had always been a drinker from a young age; it was his fathers fault really. He had often forced the boys to drink a pint with him so that when it came to beatings later in the evening, the boys were unable to escape let alone stand on their own two feet.

He learned from then that drink could help numb the pain.

They lost the baby fairly soon after they had gotten married; Gene had heard the rumours that she had never been pregnant or that he had been lucky as the baby was probably never even his. No matter what was said he never once blamed Nancy and he grieved for his unborn child. He knew in his heart Nancy was waiting for him to walk out on her; but the truth was that he could never do that to her.

Gene never admitted how devastated he was by the loss, instead he had picked up the pieces and gotten on with his life and his job; turning to drink when he needed to forget. Not that it had been an easy time at work either for Gene, as he had soon learnt that his mentor, Harry Outhwaite, was on the take; this was a man Gene had idolised and aimed to become as decent a cop as him. However Gene had been the one who had to turn Harry in, and the one to carry the burden when Outhwaite committed suicide.

This was a major turning point in Gene's life and he was thankful that he had Nancy to help him through his darkest moments… along with his trusty hip flask.

From then on Gene had fallen into the footsteps of his mentor; taking backhanders, drinking heavily and sleeping with whatever women he could lay his hands on. But at the end of it all Gene knew he could go home and find a woman there who would wrap her arms around him and cuddle him into her warm, soothing and safe embrace.

Nancy made the horrors of the world melt away.

And she never once complained about his ways, or how he had changed from the man she had first met. Yet every time Gene set eyes on Nancy, he felt the guilt eating slowly away at his soul; consuming him with a hatred for himself that Gene only learnt to face when Sam Tyler arrived on his team.

Sam Tyler and his stupid, bloody modern, politically correct, by the rule book approach to policing; the same man who had called him 'an overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline-alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding,' to which Gene still couldn't see the problem!

Gene knew that Nancy had put up with his late nights time and time again; but ever since Sam arrived he seemed to have brought out a new leash of life in Gene. He took a new and perhaps a more eager perspective on his job.

He also stopped taking backhanders.

The day she left it had been raining, Gene had called to say that he would be home late and not to bother saving a plate of dinner for him, as he would get something to eat at Nelsons pub. After he had hung up the phone, Gene had returned to celebrate with his team after their success at bringing down an infamous drug baron and his contacts.

When he had gotten home later that night he had found her gone, with a note listing things to be done around the house and a letter to explain why she had left.

She had clearly poured out her heart and soul into this letter; explaining how she longed for a family, that she hated being second best to his job, that his drinking was driving a wedge between them and that she knew about all the women, the lies and the cheating.

But it had been that new leash of life which finally made Nancy leave him; she said so in her letter. She said he had strength to him now that meant she wasn't needed anymore and that their marriage simply wasn't working out. Nancy had also written that she knew Sam would be a decent friend and help him through the worst of it.

But Gene couldn't believe he was a stronger man and didn't need his Nancy anymore.

She even admitted to having met someone else, but she didn't elaborate who this other person was.

But what really broke Gene's heart that evening was despite how badly he had treated her, had never said that he loved her enough or considered her feelings when he slept with other women… she forgave him.

He traced the curl of her letters and the way she always ended her letters with her name elaborately swirled; he crumpled the note up after re-reading it several times and slowly letting the words sink in.

Throwing the note into the bin, Gene slumped onto the sofa and held his head in his hands.

The clock ticked loudly in the corner of the room and the rain beat down against the window pane; pulling out his hip flask from his pocket Gene took a long swig and reached for his cigarettes.


End file.
